Michael Matthews outsprints Peter Sagan for first Tour de France career stage win

Michael Better
July 12, 2016

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Australian Michael Matthews (Orica-BikeExchange) took his first career stage win at the Tour de France out of a breakaway on stage 10 in Revel Tuesday. The finish saw the top two finishers at the world championships in 2015, Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Matthews, battle it out for the stage victory. And though there was no rainbow jersey on the line, Matthews got a bit of redemption against his Slovakian rival.

Matthews was aided by numerical advantage; Orica teammates Daryl Impey and Luke Burbridge also rode in the day’s breakaway, giving the Australian team three out of 15 in the break. The three riders made the select group of seven after Sagan split the breakaway in crosswinds with 25km remaining.

“It’s unbelievable,” Matthews said. “I was close to giving in at this race after I had two bad crashes [in 2014 and 2015]. I thought maybe this race is not for me but today my dream comes true. It was never the plan to go for a breakaway today. We wanted a bunch sprint finish but we’re such a strong group of guys. Durbridge and Impey gave me everything to win today. I have no words to describe what they did for me.”

Durbridge and Impey sacrificed themselves for their teammate, with the latter attacking multiple times on the short Category 3 climb before the finish.

Matthews shadowed Sagan the entire time and came through for all his teammates hard work. His Tour win gives him stage wins in all three of the Grand Tours.

The peloton rolled across the line 9:39 behind the stage winner. Chris Froome (Team Sky) pulled on the maillot jaune for another stage, as no changes occurred in the general classification. Froome leads the leader of the Best Young Rider Classification, Adam Yates (Orica-BikeExchange), by 16 seconds, with Dan Martin (Etixx-QuickStep) in third at 19 seconds.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The 10th stage of the 2016 Tour took the riders along a 197km (122.4mi) route from Escaldes-Engordany in Andorra to the French town of Revel. A Category 1 climb right from the start made sure the riders were wide awake, but then a long descent and a mostly flat ride to Revel made for a less stressful day than the hail storm on Stage 9. The Category 3 Côte de Saint-Ferréol (1.8km at 6.6%) threw a wrench into the finale, peaking with just 7km to the finish.

The Category 1 Port d’Envalira (22.6km at 5.5%) began a mere 2 kilometres into the stage and the Souvenir Henri Desgrange awaited the first rider over the top, as the climb was the highest point of this year’s Tour at 2,408m (7900ft).

Rui Costa (Lampre-Merida) crested the climb first, and on the descent and into the valley the front of the race reshuffled on multiple occasions with aggressive racing.

Sagan took the intermediate sprint point uncontested with 74.5km to the finish, as Katusha and IAM Cycling led the peloton more than six minutes behind. The world champion moved into the virtual lead in the points classification.

As intermittent rain fell on the riders, Thomas Voeckler (Direct Energie) came to the front of the peloton to assist in the pacemaking; an interesting tactic considering Direct Energie had Chavanel, a previous stage winner at the Tour, in the breakaway.

With 25km to go, the riders entered a crosswind section and the breakaway split. Sagan, Dumoulin, Boasson Hagen, Van Avemaet, and the three riders from Orica-BikeExchange formed the leading group. When the peloton rode into the crosswind less than four minutes later, riders began being shelled off the back.

A slowing in the peloton allowed the riders who were trailed off to rejoin the group, as those at the front of the race continued to power on. The leaders were able to stretch their advantage to over five minutes.

Durbridge drove the breakaway to the bottom of the Category 3 Côte de Saint-Ferréol (1.8km at 6.6%), which peaked with 7km to go. Orica-BikeExchange had the numerical advantage with three of seven riders in the leading group and looked to put Matthews in a position to win.

Impey made multiple attacks on the climb with Sagan forced to bring back the move every time. Over the top of the climb, six riders remained in front with Durbridge dropping off, his job done for the day.

Boasson Hagen tried an attack on the descent, but Sagan quickly shut down the move.

Under the Flamme Rouge with 1k to go, Impey drove the pace followed by Sagan, Matthews, Boasson Hagen, Dumoulin, and Van Avermaet. The BMC rider opened the sprint from rear of the group, a long way out from the line.

Matthews proved to be the quickest of the group and took his first career stage win at the Tour. Sagan finished second, with Boasson Hagen in third. The world champion was notably slow to react in the sprint after chasing down attacks and leading the group for most of the final kilometres.

“It’s always possible to win, but they let me close all the gaps,” Sagan said. “Matthews had the best position before the sprint while I had lost a lot of energy before the sprint. It didn’t go very well at the end but it could have been worse as well.”

After the stage, Sagan pulled on the maillot vert as leader of the points classification and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) kept his lead in the King of the Mountains classification.

“I have a bit of a cold. We have to make a medical check tonight,” Pinot said. “In the climb to Port d’Envalira, I tried a few times. We marked each other quite a lot. The only time I didn’t go with the move, it was the decisive one to get the points at the top but it was more important for me to mark Majka. Our next appointment is at the Mont Ventoux.”

No changes occurred in the fight for the overall title and thus Froome pulled on another maillot jaune after stage 10.

On Wednesday the Tour goes from Carcassonne to Montpellier. The 162.5km (101mi) flat stage should see the sprinters battle it out for the stage win, though anything is possible with Mont Ventoux looming on Thursday. The last two stage finishes in Montpellier in 2011 and 2013 saw Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) and Andre Greipel (Lotto-Soudal) take the win.